I'm HERE!

Yeah, you know those awesome old stone buildings they show in movies like Brideshead Revisited and Inspector Morse? Well, they're REAL. :D

So, plane trip: uneventful. I amused myself by listening to the chatty Danish or Norweigian couple (not sure their ethnicity; my Danish is not very good)chat away in their own langauge; I glanced over the seat at the little old lady in front of me, absorbed in a cheap "dime-novel" quality piece of ink and paper which passes for literature these days; another little old lady sat and quietly began her diary of her trip to Europe over these next few weeks, and the amazing adventures that would occur; etc, etc.

Oh! Ok, weird: in the terminal, while waiting for the plane, I heard someone call for Benjamin Button over the intercom. Seriously, who would name their kid that?

Anyway! So, we landed, which was nice. Then, I got to go through customs, which was cool and really quick; seriously, I hardly had to wink at the guy (who, by the way, sported an awesome accent and almost looked like one of my profs, which was kinda weird)and he let me through! Ok, ok, just kidding ... ;)

But then I had to wait an eternity for my luggage. And then another eternity for the bus to the other terminal on the other side of the airport. And then another eternity (honestly, how many eternities can one endure in a day?) to take the coach (not "bus," "coach") into the heart of Oxford. Which was pretty darn cool, driving in, little by little the city peeling back its great green leaves to reveal the rosy bud inside. Sappy metaphor, but it actually works! Not that the city is particularly soft and sweet-smelling - not that it smells bad, either, but it does exude a different atmosphere than, say, Detroit. The air in England seems to have almost a different taste than that of the US; how or what, I haven't quite figured out, but when I do, I'll give you my opinion.

After descending the coach at Glouchester Greene in Oxford, some of the other students and I followed our junior dean of women (who happens to be a German with the awesome name of Bianca, who has moved to Oxford as a grad student) some three or four blocks - baggage dragging behind - to our tall red brick dorm, standing stiffly between a newer shopping mall and a road full of boutiques (can you say, SHOPPING!). Once we had recieved our keys (1 - front door of dorm; 2 - personal locker in Junior Common Room; 3 - dorm room; 4 - mailbox), we then proceeded to move our luggage from the first floor to the ... well, it's all kind of built and rebuilt and built around and built sideways and split and such, so it's kind of like the second-and-a-half floor ... meaning some 60 - odd steps to climb. Not bad, once we figured out it was better to do it in two trips ... yep. Nothing can match the facility and felicity of an elevator ... !

So, after a preliminary and cursory glance round the room, largish in size, comfy, though affording no view whatsoever, my new roomate and I took a stroll round the block. We discovered a chocolate shop, a fudge shop, an ice cream shop, two coffee shops, with numerous cafes, grocery stores, sandwich shops, and pubs scattered in between. I think there were some clothes shops too, and maybe a computer store, but all that sort of melted into the background ... never go shopping on an empty stomach.

We returned to the dorm to complete our unpacking, after which I decided to be adventurous and take a shower. Adventure was not in my mind as I formed this plan of action, but adventure it was nonetheless. For some daft reason or other, the stubborn knobs refused to cooperate. If I turned on hot, it was too hot; if I turned on cold, it was too cold; if I turned on both to the right temperature, it refused to come down from the shower head, but instead babbled angrily at me through the bath spout; when I managed one through the shower head, and tried to adjust the other, it shut down completely. When I gave up (after nearly scorching my feet in the boiling hot water in the tub) and decided to turn it all off, IT WOULDN'T TURN OFF! I spent nearly ten minutes trying to turn off the blankety-blank faucet, but IT WOULDN'T TURN OFF! I coaxed, I pleaded, I threatened, I stomped and threw a fit at it; I nearly broke down in crocodile tears at the shiny, polished, inanimate object, sitting there complacently pouring forth its bowels without the slightest inconvenience to anyone but myself - in the end, I gave up completely. It had won, without lifting a single shiny finger. I threw on my clean clothes, wrapped my hair in my towel, gathered up my shampoo, and was about to walk out the door, when I turned to tap the faucet on his wrist for his terrible behavior, and IT TURNED OFF! I don't know if it's me, I don't know if it's England, but Oxford faucets have obviously never been in polite company before and have never learned any good manners. Next time, I shall be sure to give it a good talking to before atttempting to step into the tub again!

Now, we are resting and gathering up strength for the first few parts of our orientation: our "health and safety" talk and the BBQ picnic at St. Peter's, our affiliated Oxford college. Somehow, I have a feeling that whoever coordinated the talk and the picnic obviously never discussed timing with each other, because a BBQ with a bunch of college kids (I'm guessing, mostly the "frat type" - considering the drinking age over here is not limited to *ahem* "mature" 21-year-olds) does not sound like a particularly safe or healthy event. But maybe that's just me ... ?

Tomorrow, we have more orientation - lectures, fire drill (oh boy!), etc - and then a tour of Oxford, which should be really cool. I'm anxious to avoid as much as possible the "AMERICAN TOURIST" attitude which is painted in bright red all over the foreheads of certain individuals we've passed in the streets ... *ahem* ... but I do plan to take my camera and get some cool pix. In a group, it would probably be OK and less conspicuous ... maybe?

Sunday we are supposed to have our first field trip to Gloucester Cathedral and Berkeley Castle, the whereabouts of either I am as of yet in the dark, but I shall discover presently ...

Phew! That should be enough for the moment ... I'm tempted to take a nap, but I'm going to stick it out and sleep at the normal time so as to adjust more quickly to the time setting *hopefully*

Anyway, talk later!

Hope all is well back home; email me!

~ Catherine :)